Section 8 rent arrears grounds compared: Ground 8, 10 or 11, and which to use (England 2026)

A Section 8 notice for rent arrears in England can name three grounds from Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988. Ground 8 is mandatory: at least three months' rent unpaid if rent is paid monthly, or 13 weeks' rent if it is paid weekly or fortnightly, both on the day the notice is served and on the day of the hearing. Ground 10 (some rent unpaid) and Ground 11 (persistent late payment) are discretionary: the judge orders possession only if it is reasonable. All three need four weeks' notice.

The usual course is to name Grounds 8 and 10 together in one notice, with Ground 11 where the rent has been persistently late. Ground 8 is the only one that obliges the court to order possession, and it is also the easiest to lose on the day: a payment that leaves the arrears a penny under the line defeats it. Grounds 10 and 11 are what the court decides on next.

This guide sets the three side by side as they stand since the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed them on 1 May 2026, works the Ground 8 line for fortnightly rent and for a Universal Credit payment still on its way, and says which grounds fit which case. The law was read on legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK on 25 October 2026. It covers private assured tenancies in England; Wales has its own law under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Each ground's wider rules are in the Section 8 grounds guide, and the first steps when the rent stops are in tenant not paying rent.

The three grounds side by side

The section numbers are the Housing Act 1988's. Before 1 May 2026 Ground 8 needed two months' rent (eight weeks' on weekly or fortnightly rent) and two weeks' notice, and Grounds 10 and 11 two weeks' notice too. The Act also dropped Ground 8's paragraphs for rent paid quarterly or yearly, and section 4A now allows only rent periods of 28 days or shorter, or monthly (Housing Act 1988 s.4A). The changes apply to private assured tenancies from 1 May 2026 (SI 2026/421, reg 2).

Ground 8: the line and the two dates

Ground 8 asks for a fixed amount of unpaid rent, and the amount depends on how often the rent is due:

(a) if rent is payable weekly or fortnightly, at least thirteen weeks' rent is unpaid;

(b) if rent is payable monthly, at least three months' rent is unpaid;

The line has to be met "both at the date of the service of the notice" and "at the date of the hearing". Three more rules shape the count:

• Only rent lawfully due counts. A late payment charge, a utility bill or a claim for damage is not rent, and neither is a rent increase that never lawfully took effect.
• Rent paid every four weeks is in neither paragraph. Ground 8 sets a figure for weekly, fortnightly and monthly rent only, so take advice before relying on it for a four-weekly tenancy. Grounds 10 and 11 apply whatever the rent period.
• The notice cannot be skipped. On most grounds the court can dispense with the notice where that is just and equitable, but not on Ground 8 (s.8(5)).

If Ground 8 is proved, the court must make the order (s.7(3)). It cannot adjourn the claim, or suspend or postpone the order, under section 9 (s.9(6)), and the date to leave is no later than 14 days after the order, or six weeks where leaving sooner would cause the tenant exceptional hardship (Housing Act 1980 s.89).

Weekly and fortnightly rent, worked

Thirteen weeks' rent is a sum of money, not a count of missed payments. On fortnightly rent of £460 (£230 a week), the line is 13 x £230 = £2,990:

So a fortnightly tenant crosses the line on the seventh missed payment, which is 14 weeks of rent, not 13. On weekly rent of £230 the 13th missed payment brings the total to exactly £2,990, and "at least" means that meets it. For monthly rent, the arrears guide's worked example walks the three months, and the Ground 8 arrears checker tests monthly, weekly or fortnightly rent against the line.

The second date is the one landlords lose on. Keep the fortnightly tenancy: the notice is served with £3,220 owed, and by the hearing twelve weeks later six more payments have been missed, so £5,980 is owed. A payment of £2,990.01 the day before leaves £2,989.99, a penny under 13 weeks' rent, and Ground 8 fails. The tenant has paid off half the debt, and the claim now turns on Grounds 10 and 11.

Universal Credit payments still on the way

Since 1 May 2026 Ground 8 ends with this sentence:

When calculating how much rent is unpaid for the purpose of this ground, if the tenant is entitled to receive an amount for housing as part of an award of universal credit under Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, any amount that was unpaid only because the tenant had not yet received the payment of that award is to be ignored.

GOV.UK's guidance puts it more plainly: a tenant who owes three months or 13 weeks because they have not received their Universal Credit cannot be evicted on this ground. Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears, so the rent day and the payment day can sit a week or more apart.

An example. The rent is £900 a month, due on the 1st, and the tenant's Universal Credit, which includes housing costs, lands on the 9th. October and November are unpaid, and on 3 December so is December's rent: £2,700 on the ledger, three months. If December's £900 is unpaid only because that month's payment has not reached the tenant, it is ignored, the count is £1,800, and a notice served on 3 December does not meet Ground 8 on the first date. Served on 10 December, after the payment has arrived and with nothing paid over, the full £2,700 counts on the Act's wording and GOV.UK's guidance.

No court has ruled on the new sentence yet. Its words are in the past tense ("was unpaid only because"), so a tenant may argue that rent which fell due before their Universal Credit arrived stays out of the count even after the payment lands. If the tenant disputes the count, take advice. Either way, if you know the tenant's payment date, count after it. Once the arrears reach two months' rent, GOV.UK says a landlord can also ask for a managed payment (the housing costs paid straight to the landlord) or a deduction towards the arrears of at most 15% of the tenant's standard allowance. Universal Credit direct payments covers the application.

Ground 10: some rent unpaid

Ground 10 has no threshold. Some rent lawfully due must be unpaid on the day the claim is issued, and in arrears on the day the notice was served (unless the court has dispensed with the notice). One missed month is enough to name it. GOV.UK's guidance says it lets a landlord try to evict before the tenant owes three months' rent, with an order only if the court believes it is reasonable.

That is the catch. On Grounds 10 and 11 the judge weighs whether possession is reasonable (s.7(4)), and can adjourn the case, or make an order and suspend it or postpone the date. Unless that would cause exceptional hardship or otherwise be unreasonable, the court must attach conditions about paying the rent and the arrears (s.9(3)). One outcome open to the judge is a suspended order: the tenant stays while they pay the rent plus a set amount off the debt, and the landlord asks for a warrant if they stop. Possession orders, outright and suspended covers what happens after the hearing.

Note which date Ground 10 looks at: the day the claim is issued, not the hearing. A tenant who clears the balance between the claim and the hearing has not undone the ground, but the judge can take the payment into account when deciding whether possession is reasonable.

Ground 11: persistent late payment

Ground 11 is the only one of the three that can apply when nothing is owed. It applies where "the tenant has persistently delayed paying rent which has become lawfully due", whether or not any rent is in arrears when the claim is issued. The Act does not define persistently. The judge looks at the payment history as a whole: how often the rent was late, by how much and over how long.

An example. Rent of £1,050 is due on the 1st. Over the last 12 months it arrived in full every time, but between the 15th and the 24th in 9 of those months, and nothing is owed on the day you serve. Ground 8 is out, because nothing is owed, and so is Ground 10, because no rent is in arrears on the day of service. Ground 11 fits that history, and the evidence is the ledger itself: each due date beside the date the money arrived.

It also survives a full payment made before the claim is issued, which Ground 10 does not. Paying the balance clears the debt, not the record of how it built up.

Why landlords name the grounds together

There are four practical reasons to name Grounds 8, 10 and 11 together in an arrears case:

1. 1Ground 8 can fail on the day. A part payment before the hearing, a disrepair counterclaim set off against the rent, a Universal Credit payment that turns out to have been on its way, or a charge that was not rent lawfully due can each take the count under the line. Disrepair counterclaims shows how the set-off works.
2. 2A ground left out is hard to add later. The court can order possession only on a ground named in the notice with its particulars, and adding one needs the court's permission (s.8(2)).
3. 3It costs no time. All three carry the same four weeks, so naming 10 and 11 beside 8 does not move the earliest date for court.
4. 4The claim has somewhere to go. If Ground 8 fails, the claim does not end there: the judge goes on to decide Grounds 10 and 11 on whether possession is reasonable.

Name a ground only if its facts are true on the day you serve. Form 3A asks for the full wording of each ground and the reasons it applies, and a Ground 8 named while the arrears are under the line fails at the first date whatever happens later.

Which grounds to name, case by case

Ground 11 needs a record of repeated late payment, which a first run of missed payments may not show. Name it when the ledger shows that pattern, as in the Ground 11 example.

Under the line, waiting or serving now is a judgement call. Serving on Grounds 10 and 11 gets the claim moving sooner but leaves the outcome to the judge. Waiting for the line adds the mandatory ground, at the cost of more unpaid rent while you wait. The Breathing Space rule is regulation 7 (paragraphs (2), (7)(j) and (12)) of the Debt Respite Scheme Regulations 2020, and what a Breathing Space stops sets out the rest of it.

Before you serve

• The deposit. If you took a deposit, the court can make an order on any of the three grounds only if it is held in an authorised scheme with the scheme's requirements met (late protection still counts) and the prescribed information given, or it was returned in full or with deductions you both agreed, or the tenant's court claim about it has been decided, withdrawn or settled. Only orders on Grounds 7A and 14 are outside that rule (Housing Act 2004 s.215).
• The count. Work from a ledger with every charge and every payment, by date. If the claim goes ahead, the particulars must set out, among other things, the amount due, a schedule of every payment due and every payment made over the two years before the claim (or from the first missed payment), with a running total, the daily rate of rent, the steps already taken to recover the arrears, and what you know of the tenant's circumstances, including whether they receive benefits and whether any are paid to you direct (Practice Direction 55A, para 2.3).
• The dates. The date in the notice must be at least four weeks after service, counting the day of service as the first day. A notice served on Monday 2 November 2026 runs to the end of Sunday 29 November, so give Monday 30 November or later. The claim must then be issued within 12 months of service (s.8(3)(c)).
• Old notices. A Section 8 notice served before 1 May 2026 on the old Form 3 can no longer be used to start a claim, apart from a narrow extension where the tenant was in a Breathing Space (GOV.UK, notices given before 1 May 2026). A new claim starts with a notice on Form 3A under the rules on this page.

Keeping the count in one place

Every point above turns on dates: when each rent fell due, when it was paid, what was owed on the day of service and what is owed on the day of the hearing. In LetCompliance the rent is tracked on each tenancy, and the tenancy shows the arrears against the Ground 8 line for its own rent period: three months' rent on monthly rent, 13 weeks' on weekly and fortnightly rent, and for rent due every four weeks a note to take advice. Until the line is crossed, it names the due date of the rent that would take the arrears over it if nothing more is paid, and says the line is crossed from the day after that rent goes unpaid; once it is met, it reminds you the line must still hold at the hearing. Each charge keeps its due date and the date it was paid, which is the history Grounds 10 and 11 rest on. The ledger cannot know whether an unpaid sum is a Universal Credit payment on its way, so that check is yours.

On every paid plan, from £7.99 a month, the Section 8 notice builder fills in Form 3A with Grounds 8, 10 and 11 in the statute's own words, works out the earliest date for court from the grounds you choose, and starts the reasons for the arrears grounds from the ledger: the rent, the unpaid charges and the total, for you to edit. It is not on the free plan or in the trial. See how the rent arrears tracking works.

Keep the arrears count on the tenancy